Hospital & Rehab

After Scottie escaped from his pen and ripped his wound open again, the vet wanted him to come into the practice for the day so that they could run a few tests before deciding what to do next. While it seemed that the wound had reopened due to Scottie’s impressive gymnastics in the field, because he had been off his antibiotics for 4-5 days and that the wound still hadn’t healed as much as she would have liked, she wanted to rule out that there might be something else going on deeper that we couldn’t see.

So Wednesday morning he went to the hospital to have some x-rays and scans. They were looking for any bone chips, splinters or dead/damaged tissue which might have been causing issues. Luckily, they found nothing although it does sound like there was more muscle damage than they were expecting, which is taking a long time to heal. They did say that there is a chance that there is a small infection along the surface of the bone, but they don’t know for sure and they don’t want to operate to look and remove unless they really have to.

So Scottie is back home now with 3 weeks of really strong antibiotics to get rid of anything which might be lurking beneath the surface. The vet thinks that part of the reason it is taking so long to heal is that he isn’t moving enough, so that the wound starts to knit together while stationary. But when he starts moving again it gets damaged again. So she wants him out in his pen as much as possible plus 2 or 3 10-15 min walks a day really getting him marching forwards as he isn’t really moving around in the field enough (apart from when he escapes and then moves far too much!)

Not only is Scottie on a strict movement routine, but his leg also needs flushing with an iodine solution twice a day until it dries up a bit more and then it can go down to once a day. So as you can imagine, the time I spend at the yard is increasing significantly!

For now its hard to say when we will be back on track. But the vet is coming back out in 2 weeks to see how he is doing and we will have a better idea of where we are then. But in the meantime, we can crack on doing in hand work and think about preparing for the in horsemanship classes for the EquiMind summer Championships!

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About two months ago one of my horses was hit by a car, which caused massive injuries across his knees that could not be stitched. After a week of stall rest, my vet recommended daily walks and after two weeks he was cleared for turnout. I noticed he wasn’t really moving around much during turnout, which rather defeated the purpose, so I moved his water tub, food bowls and hay piles around to force him to walk around. He has to walk all over if he wants his water and meals, and two months later his injuries are almost completely healed. Good luck! These types of injuries are a real bear!

Its a nightmare isn’t it! Like you I’ve got his water, hay and lick all at different ends of his pen. And when he eats the grass down I give him multiple hay piles. But there’s not really anything else you can do.

I hope he is recovering well! Hearing of so many accidents on the road at the moment!

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EquiPepper was born from Ruby’s love of thoroughbreds and passion to change the negative stigma surrounding the breed. Inspired by her first horse and ex racehorse Highland Rain, EquiPepper aims to improve the welfare of horses around the world by educating horse owners.

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